[access-uk] Re: colorino

From: "ANDY COLLINS" <Andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:49:39 +0100

hi Brian -

As your wife has discovered, it is far from perfect, but to get anything
better you'd have to pay a few hundred quid more as I understand, not that
I've got the latest pricing on the more powerful detectors, and I've
certainly had no experience with them, but from what I was aware of a few
years ago there is a better detector out there, but for loads more dosh. For
me, the Colorino certainly has a place, as it is accurate enough in many
cases, and great for sorting out odd socks, as long as you can learn that
when it says gray/green, it means beige <smile> -

I find the Colorino can be inconsistent. Jackie's tip of lying a garment
flat on a firm surface is a good one. I have also found that if I put my
finger behind a garment, and then press that bit of the garment against
the detecting hole on the device, I can get more accurate results. For
example, just putting the Colorino against a garment that is white, it
may tell me it is light gray, but if I push the material in to the tip of
the hole, it may then see it as white. I always take 2-3 readings because
of certain inconsistencies. Yes, I too have found that it can see dark
brown as black, and almost never is it able to tell navy from black. I
still find it useful, if not perfect, and use it, with a combination of
familiarising myself with the colours of my clothes from textures/button
differences. But of course some of us have identical garments of
different colours, and if the colours are close, such as similar but
different shades of blue, the Colorino may struggle to see the
difference, then some other way of identification is required, if it's
that important. Personally, I'm very fussy about what I ware, and
although I have sighted help, I like to be independent, and won't usually
buy things that are too similar to each other in both style and colour. I
have a number of polo shirts for example, all the same to the touch, but
sufficiently different in colour for the Colorino to identify. It's
important for me to choose colours that are right for my colouring too,
and that's where I need sighted help too. But that's just me, others are
less particular -

My wife bought it following a recent deterioration in her sight. She has
been very disappointed so far. the device doesn't seem to tell the
differnce between black and brown for instance. will try your tips, many
thanks